On the final day of the fall, two days before Monday's nasty snow and ice blanketed central Illinois, the St. Joseph-Ogden harriers ran to an 18th place finish at the Illinois High School Association's State Cross Country Finals at Detweiller Park last Saturday.
Junior Brandon Mattsey, SJO's top runner, completed his race in 15 minutes and 48.78 seconds earning 28 points with his 43rd overall place finish.
Helping the Spartans edge out 19th place Unity, was senior Eric Poe, Charlie Mabry, Elijah Mock and Luke Stegall who earned 421 points. The Rockets finished with 423 points in the team standings.
It was Poe's final cross country event with the Spartans. In the senior's first and only state run, he clocked in at 16.27.75, finishing in 100th place. Nineteen runners later, Mabry concluded his race 13 seconds later at 16:40.19.
Mock and Stegall finished ten runners apart. Coming in at 17:02.52, Mock crossed finish line seven seconds ahead of Stegall's 17:09.99.
Juniors Logan Wolfersberger and Lukas Hutcherson also ran in the season finale. Not in the top five finishers for the Spartans, their results did not count toward overall the team score. Wolfersberger was 175th overall at 17:28.50 while Hutcherson ran over the finish line at 17:46.59 for 184th place.
Soccer seniors made a super effort this fall
Not quite ready for full-fledged membership into the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor recruited by Dr. Charles Xavier for enrollment in his School for Gifted Young Children, Kolton Batty, Luke Cohen, Brayden Grimsey and Zac Seeley, the four seniors on St. Joseph-Ogden's soccer team made a heroic effort to produce a winning soccer season this fall.
Batty, who was named All-Conference First Team, along with an Honorable Mention for Seeley, were recognized as All-Conference players by the Illini Prairie Conference. Seeley was also recognized as the 2019 squad's Most-Valuable-Player at the SJO Fall Sports Awards earlier this week.
The quartet of seasoned and skilled footballers did not reach the level of success they had hoped as a team but will most certainly take the lessons they learned about themselves through the various trials and tribulations they encountered this season to become worthy X-Men or members of the MCU.
The Spartans finished the season with a record of seven wins, 14 losses and four ties. The team lost by two goals or less in seven of their losses.
The four seniors played for a combined 6,038 minutes. Batty was punched in for 1,709 of them.
Back in September after a home game, I interviewed the four about their hero personas. Here is a glance at the soccer team's unsung heroes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
More Sentinel Stories
PONTIAC - People everywhere are conquering their cabin fever and are enjoying the great outdoors after a long, bitter winter. But before you head out for that hike, health care experts remind you to take precautions to avoid tick bites. Read more . . .
I’ve always known my Arab culture is worth celebrating.
I heard it in Syrian tenor Sabah Fakhri’s powerful voice reverberating in my mom’s car on the way to piano lessons and soccer practice during my youth. I smelled it in the za’atar, Aleppo pepper, allspice, and cumin permeating the air in the family kitchen. Read more . . .
I heard it in Syrian tenor Sabah Fakhri’s powerful voice reverberating in my mom’s car on the way to piano lessons and soccer practice during my youth. I smelled it in the za’atar, Aleppo pepper, allspice, and cumin permeating the air in the family kitchen. Read more . . .
CHAMPAIGN - In a show of solidarity against President Donald Trump's trade and immigration policies, which critics say are harming families and retirement savings, more than a thousand protesters gathered Saturday at West Park near downtown Champaign for the Hands-Off! Mobilization rally. Read more . . .
Photo Galleries
A couple of runners found themselves in the wrong race at this year's Illinois Marathon. Over 60 photos from the race that you should see.
Photos: Sentinel/Clark Brooks